Receiving large amounts of liquids is the prerequisite for a useful deployment of aircraft, in particular airplanes, for example when extinguishing fires, irrigating fields, fertilizing or applying pesticides as well as applying de-icing products. For these purposes it is particularly desirable not only to receive the largest possible amounts of appropriate liquids, but also to perform filling of the tanks required for this purpose at the highest possible speed without having to resort to complex measures.
From DE 39 05 118 A1 a device for the transport of fire extinguishing agents is known, which may be arranged on a transport vehicle, for example chain-driven vehicles, trucks, helicopters or ships. The device there disclosed represents an autonomous fire extinguishing system, which may be transported to the source of the fire by conventional means of transportation. The device comprises a tank, of containerized construction, including a plurality of chambers, subdivided by at least one longitudinal and one horizontal bulkhead for receiving the fire extinguishing agents, for example water, as well as an engine room adjoining an end face of the container for receiving the fire extinguishing equipment, and a plurality of closable connector nipples projecting through the exterior container walls as well as at least one aperture for charging and withdrawing the fire extinguishing agent. The device disclosed in DE 39 05 118 A1 is moved to a water supply location by a transport vehicle, the container being filled there by a fire extinction suction pump, for example. The fire extinguishing agent received is then transported to the site of the fire and released again by appropriate fire extinguishing devices. A particular disadvantage of the device known from DE 39 05 118 A1 is that the latter, on the one hand, does not permit high speed filling, and no discharge of the device at high velocity, exclusively by atmospheric pressure, on the other hand, is possible; the device is further constructed in a relatively complex manner so that it exhibits only limited flexibility with regard to the amount of water to be received for fire extinguishing purposes.